The Hillside Festival has weaved its way into the cultural fabric of Guelph, and has marked its place in our heritage and community. Over the past 30 years, it has developed artistically to become an entity of its own, and has become an annual event to mark on calendars for Guelphites and out-of-towners alike.
This not-for-profit music festival boasts to offer “a broad vision that emphasizes diversity of culture, of musical heritage and style, of age, geography and influence,” as stated on their website. Though the Hillside Festival has been running for over 30 years, this year marks the 7th annual Hillside Inside festival, the much-loved winter version of these annual events.
From Feb. 7 to 9, multiple downtown venues showcased both on- and off-stage acts, with seven acts for ticketed concerts and 14 for free events. This is compared to the typical 70-or-so acts booked during the summer Hillside festivities.
As a result of the small size of Hillside Inside, this festival had a more intimate feel. We spoke to Marie Zimmerman, Executive Director of the Hillside Festival (as well as Hillside’s Artistic Director), about this annual event. Zimmerman noted that Hillside Inside is “urban and sometimes feels edgier,” since the acts chosen are better suited to a smaller program and have a place to stand out.
“We try to showcase a diverse selection of performers that reflect the same artistic sensibility as the programming at our summer festival,” added the festival’s Artistic Director.
The opening gathering began on Friday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m., when the Fab 5 Cabaret met at the River Run Centre. Guelph is renowned for their Fab 5 Festivals – Hillside, Jazz Fest, Eden Mills Writers’ Fest, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, and the Festival of Moving Media – and the cabaret was designed to represent each organization’s unique vision.
Later that evening, the rebellious Lido Pimienta opened with a performance at Mitchell Hall in St. George’s Church. The Colombian-born dance-pop performer made waves with her powerful vocals and brazen opinions. Afterwards, Polaris Music Prize nominated DJ crew, A Tribe Called Red, took the stage. Their music typically mends together Aboriginal pow-wow with electronic music, but their performance seemed more like a DJ set at a dance party, which resulted in the entire audience dancing for hours.
The morning of Saturday, Feb. 8 featured events such as Hillside Hockey, Girls & Guitars, and Youth Music.
The Girls & Guitars program, developed by those at Hillside, showcased women in an effort to assert the power of creativity in females and to encourage them to explore careers in music.
They was also a change made to this year’s Youth Music event, moving them out of the River Run Centre and into a café, which allowed these young musicians to perform in a venue that would be more reflective of where they would typically perform when launching their careers.
Saturday afternoon had Timber Timbre performing mysterious folk music with a haunting voice, followed by a performance by Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat singer from Nunavut.
At 6 p.m., a free event titled “Lit Music: The Broken Social Scene Story Project” highlighted three pieces of writing from the book of the same name, all while featuring live music from members of the Darcys. It was an effort “to combine our passions for music and literature,” said Zimmerman. “We found the perfect vehicle this year with the Broken Social Scene Story Project. We were lucky enough to get the three top prize-winning writers of stories based on Broken Social Scene lyrics.” According to Zimmerman, the crowd loved the synergy.
Late on Saturday evening, art-rock band the Darcys joined July Talk for a performance in Mitchell Hall in St. George’s Church. July Talk combined their typical Americana and indie-rock sound, in addition to some outrageous acts performed on stage.
On Sunday, Feb. 9, the River Run Centre hosted a drumming workshop led by Tom Wolf, a dance workshop by Gadfly, and a singing workshop by the Guelph Community Singers. The Sunday events ended with a gospel session by Whitehorse and The Strumbellas at St. George’s Church.
In regards to all the off-stage events that were planned, “we [were] looking for something innovative and exciting and something with a local connection, if possible,” said Zimmerman.
“The festival is evolving each year,” added Hillside’s Artistic Director. “The creative vision for Hillside Inside is established almost a year in advance.” Hillside organizers start planning program ideas and performers in the summer, and go into more detail as they move into the fall.
As for future plans and goals for next year’s Hillside Inside, they aren’t yet sure. “We’ve got a million ideas, as always,” said Zimmerman.